Why so many jeweled insects in Victorian England? For one thing, entomology became a fashionable amateur pursuit, alongside collecting shells, birds’ eggs, ferns and botanical specimens. Also, jewelers found bugs to be ideal miniature compositions. Wings could be rendered in diamonds and pearls, bodies in colored stones, and the forms allowed for much more playfulness and asymmetry than conventional floral jewelry. Bees, beetles, butterflies, dragonflies, spiders and flies all appear, sometimes with symbolic associations, sometimes just because they looked weird and cool.
MATERIALS: 10k gold (tests), silver, 2 3.5mm red spinels, 1 3.5mm & 2 3mm blue spinels, 2 2.5mm amethysts, seed pearls, 18 rose cut diamonds, new 14k gold chain
AGE: c. 1880
CONDITION: Very good - we've replaced one amethyst; this piece was likely converted from a brooch into a pendant
SIZE: 1 1/8" length including the bale, 7/8" x 7/8" pendant, 18" chain